SuperTuxKart: unlock all tracks and karts

SuperTuxKart is a race karts game similar as Mario Kart and one of my favorite games because it's addictive and allow a lot of interesting things.

Now we see a tick to unlock all tracks and karts, we need edit a file with and editor than keep the original format of the file (I use jEdit).

This is the full path of the file:

$HOME/.config/supertuxkart/0.8.2/players.xml

we need change these strings:

true ► false

none ► hard

And that's it, you can already enjoy all the karts and tracks, including those that are blocked without needing to get the milestones.

Open alternatives to privative software (XII): GIMP, the graphics editor

You need GNU/Gimp if you need edit a photo or any image.

The GIMP is a very powerfull tool, at least as much as the most well known and you needn't pay a lot of money for a licence and you have the guarantee than it's open source.
Anyway, as any other software, you need a good manual or a course to learn of the possibility.

Some of its feautures:

• Multisystem: there are Windows, Mac (now full native), GNU/Linux y much more other unixes versions.
• Most GNU/Linux distros includes GIMP installed of included in their official repositories.
• Can import from or export to almost all graphics format.
• This is open source and also free software, you needn't pay expensive licences.
• You can do a lot of things with layers, make an animated GIF, images for different scenarios, etc...

Sice 2.8.x version was launched you can work in an unique window or not.
This version requires a pentium 4 processor at least and Windows version must be runned al least in Windows XP with service pack 3.

If our computer hasn't the minimal requirements (our PC must be older than 15 years old) we can use the older versions. They have most of the feautures with less requirements.

You can see professional possibilities and works in youtube, these videos will surprise you.

Original article

• Alternativas al software propietario (XII): GIMP, editor de imágenes.

Open alternatives to propietary software (X): web browsers

Any open web browser is the best option to surf in the web with security, especially since the vulnerabilities are discovered very soon and corrected right away, using a private one is like playing Russian roulette.
These are some of most well-know:

• Mozilla Firefox, one of the more used web browsers in the World. It's a powerfull and secure web browser.
• Google Chrome another open source web browser, but made by google and apparently it monitors us while we use. There are a lot of people, including myseft,  that doesn't like this circustance.
  But again the advantages of free software are evident in this case, doesn't like how this web browser works? No problem, we made a fork: Chromium... but in this case Chrome is the fork than add spy code.
• Chromium this is handled the same as google chrome but without that disturbing monitoring and works with most chrome plugins, it is also very fast and secure.
• Other less known web browsers are Midori, SeaMonkey, etc

All of them are available for Windows, Mac and GNU/Linux, in the last case we do not even have to install Firefox because it usually comes standard on all distros, for something will be.

Open alternatives to privative software (VII): Libreoffice.org, the office suite

There is a lot of user that needs a computer just for use a web browser and a simple office suite.

These use can work with GNU/Linux without a great effort, and they keep reading all the files the had in office formats using LibreOffice.

This office suite is included in most GNU/Linux distros and also can read visio and pdf files and much more formats.

Available for a lot of systems (i.e: Windows and OSX) and there isn't any real reasons that avoid change to LibreOffice.org

Open alternatives to propietary software (V): Audacity: audio software for multi-track recording and editing

Audicity is the best program to digitize audio in your computer, the perfect tool for this task:

• Multisystem: available for GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac.
• Light but very powerful.
• Multi-track.
• Easy to use. Intuitive.
• The size limit of your file is the free space in your hard disk, other propietary software need save temporal in memory because are too slow, when out of memory these programs hang.
• You can export to wav, ogg vorbis and mp3.
• You can add more features with  plugins and libraries like use other formats like older retrocomputers ones.

I make a manual to convert several audio files to mp3 or ogg files with audacity.

Open alternatives to proprietary software (IV): 7zip compressor/uncompressor

There are a lot of open compressing software, one of them is 7zip

• Multisystem: available for Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac, Amiga, BeOS, DOS, Solaris, etc...
• Support almost all compressing formats and it has an own one than compress the files very well.
• It can open iso, cab, msi, linux packages, etc...
• Very light, 1 or 2 Mb.
• You can use it in your mother tongue, available 79 languages.

If you use ubuntu or debian install p7zip, p7zip-full y p7zip-rar packages and you can open almost all the files.
You can install it with the software center of your distro or from console with the commands:

apt-get install p7zip p7zip-full  p7zip-rar


Open alternatives to proprietary software (III): UMplayer, the multimedia player

UMPlayer is an open source multimedia player with a lot of advantages:

• Multisystem.
• Plugins included inside. If it hangs for a buggy file the system doesn't hang.
• I can play almost any multimedia file.
• Adapted to your PC hardware, processor and graphics card.
• Subtitles support is included.
• It can play DVD, VCD, CD from the device or the files copied in a folder.
• Supports TV, radio and videocast.
• It can play youtube videos.

UMPlayer was my prefer multimedia player for a long time.

jEdit, optimal configuration for programming

jEdit is a powerful editor for programming and we can get more useful making some adjustments in its configuration.

jEdit, best the last version

JEdit version included in most distros are usually very obsolete, so I recommend you uninstall this version, download the latest one from its official web and install this one.

To uninstall it in debian/ubuntu and install the downloaded version type these commands:

apt-get install remove
sudo dpkg -i jedit_X.Y.Z_all.deb

Add the plug-ins you'll need

Add a close repository with these menu options:

Plugins ► Plugin manager ► Download options ► Update Mirror List

I add these plug-ins:

• JDiffPlugins : Compare differences between two files.
• FTP: open and save local files or files in a FTP or secure server, you can use asimetric passwords.
• PHPParser: Colourize your code using the syntax of your programming language, php in this case.

Configurations that make your life easier

Access to configurations with these menu options:

Utilities ► Global options 

These are my recommendations:

jEdit ► Appearance ► Show splash screen on Startup	save time in startup.
jEdit ► Editing ► Tab width	Tap step, I use 4 characters.
jEdit ► Editing ► Indent width	Indent step, I use 4 characters.
jEdit ► Editing ► Soft (emulated with spaces) tabs	Convert tab into spaces. So your code will be equal in any editor.
jEdit ► Saving and Backup ► Two stage save	Turn it off to avoid change permission and owner of files when you save changes.
jEdit ► Saving and Backup ► Backup directory	All backup files in a separate directory.
jEdit ► View ► Always show search bar	Very useful to quick search anything.

Open alternatives to proprietary software (II): Inkscape, the SVG editor

Inkscape is a marvellous softwate to make vertorial graphics, it use SVG open format, a standard than most software manage, including web browsers.

• Available for multiple operating systems.
• Very stable and light.
• Compatible with other software.
• Manage PDF files.
• There is a lot of documentation to take advantage of the software.

You can see some screenshots to give you an idea of its possibilities.

Sometime ago, I design a forniture for my home in few minutes.

Open alternatives to proprietary software (I): PSPP, statistic analysis

One reason that many users argue for not to leave the proprietary systems and migrate to GNU/Linux is that the application that they usually use does not exist in the free systems ... or so they believe.

In most case there are some alternative free software that do the same function as their private one, but you know the name of the equivalent software, pages like alterativeTo will help you to find the right software.

I start this series talking about PSPP, an stadistics analysis software, than can replace the well-known SPSS with advantages:

• SPSS great compatibily.
• Multi-system: works in GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac.
• You can try it without instalations using this CD-live.
• You can export to Excel, opendocument (LibreOffice Calc), gnumeric, ascii and several database managers.
• No problems with number of licenses because is free sofware, save money and avoid problems with backpacks or license servers when network is offline.
• You can also export to ASCII, PDF, PostScript or HTML.
• You can get several types of stadistical graphics.

This is a good oportunity to start get rid of that drug called proprietary software.
 

See wikipedia and the official page for more details.

There is also a lot of courses, books and video-tutorials.